Monthly Archives: September 2016
Long-term outcome in patients admitted with a heart attack and detected with increased blood sugar levels during admission
An Oral Glucose Tolerance Test ( OGTT ) is one of the diagnostic tests to determine the presence of pre – diabetes or manifest diabetes. An OGTT involves drinking a 75 gram sugar solution after 8 hours
Treatment of sarcoidosis
Sarcoidosis is an uncommon, poorly understood disorder that most often affects the chest. Its cause is unknown. While the outcome is, in general, favorable, a small number develop scarring of the lungs (fibrosis), which, if extensive, will
Can you reduce your risk of diabetes with lifestyle changes?
Glucose homeostasis deficiency may lead to chronic increase in blood glucose levels and could affect a large number of tissues and organs. The shift from early metabolic abnormalities that forego diabetes, such as impaired fasting glucose and
Discovering how treatments for emphysema might lead to infections
Smoking related lung diseases include emphysema and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Smokers are also at increased risk of pneumonia – bacterial infections of the lung. Together COPD and pneumonia are ranked as the 3rd and 4th
Dongting Lake contaminated sediment: an unignorable pollution issue but can be tackled by the ubiquitous zeolite
Dongting Lake is one of the biggest natural water resources in South China. Due to developed economy in the adjacent area, the river has suffered from high loads of untreated wastewater which contains high amounts of heavy
Who is the father of innate immunity?
The thermometer can show that something is wrong with a patient (pyrexia). But it cannot be more specific. Likewise, there is evidence, dating back to the ancient Greeks, that the slight changes in blood serum that occur
Stress must not be confused with pain
Our article “Stress is not pain” was a critique on a study by Elwood & Adams who exposed crabs to electric shocks and concluded that their study ‘. . .fulfils the criteria expected of a pain experience’.
Water disinfection in an open channel using computational fluid dynamics
Millions of people suffer from diseases by drinking dirty water each year. Public health data shows that 85% of child and 65% of adult diseases are due to waterborne pathogens and this disease rate is increasing. This
Optimizing diabetes care on a global scale
Diabetes is a major threat to healthy living for hundreds of millions of people worldwide. Type-1 diabetes must be treated with insulin and type-2 diabetes (the more common form) can be treated with lifestyle changes, oral medication,
Neurofeedback for ADHD – specific effects on behaviour and brain
Children with ADHD (Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder) are commonly described as having difficulties in controlling their attention and in regulating and especially withholding actions when they are inadequate. One common way of addressing these problems is medication. While
Anti-aging pills: is it a time for human implementation?
The investigations aimed at human life extension have traditionally raised concerns that it can lead to the growth of the older population and, consequently, to the high prevalence of aging-associated chronic pathologies. Numerous studies have, however, demonstrated
“What a long headache you’ve had!” Lingering concussion symptoms may not be what they appear in kids
For most children with a concussion, their symptoms disappear in 1-2 weeks. However, up to 15%-30% of children with a concussion will have symptoms that last 3 months or more. On-going symptoms are important for healthcare providers
AMPK: How can we amp it up to fight disease?
The high prevalence of obesity, insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease has made it clear that we need a better understanding of how our bodies store and use energy when we overload them with excess
Do you suffer from airplane headache during flight travels? Don’t worry, you are not alone!
While many passengers lean back and relax in their plane seats and look forward to their destination, every 12th passenger is anything but relaxed while flying according to new findings on headache associated with airplane travels. A
Theoretical design of drug carrying block copolymer micelles
One of the challenges of next generation drugs is the design of target-specific delivery of pharmaceutical agents to the cancerous tumors or diseased cells. Polymer micelles and hydrogels have been traditional candidates for drug-delivery purposes. Poorly soluble
Cracking eggs: Researchers measure the toughness of eggshell
Eggs break easily – but how easily exactly? Surprisingly, nobody knew until researchers at Trinity College Dublin in Ireland found a way to measure it. Prof David Taylor of the Trinity Centre for Bioengineering explained that eggs
International study of parents’ experiences when their baby was diagnosed with a limb difference
Dysmelia is a group of rare diseases involving limb differences. Rare diseases are those which affect less than 1 in 2000 people, but around 8000 rare diseases exist altogether and over 50 million people in the USA
Trapping copper with peptides to diminish metal-related toxicity in Alzheimer’s disease
Metals are essential in many life processes and, as such, all organisms including our body have developed mechanisms for their uptake and tight regulation to achieve a normal functioning. Failure of these mechanisms is reflected in the
MTA3: A master coregulator of physiology and oncogenesis
The discovery of novel therapeutics for treatment of cancer is today’s prime concern due to abundantly increasing cancer drug resistance and deaths worldwide. MTA3, a member of metastasis-associated protein (MTA) family, plays unique and collaborative roles in
Zika virus infection during pregnancy and small heads: What is the connection and what can be seen by imaging
Within the last year, the outbreak of Zika virus infection in Brazil became a “public health emergency of international magnitude and concern”. The global discussions about the risk of Zika virus infection for pregnant women ahead of
